Various industries have networks associated with them. One such industry is the utility industry that manages a power grid. The power grid may include one or all of the following: electricity generation, electric power transmission, and electricity distribution. Electricity may be generated using generating stations, such as a coal fire power plant, a nuclear power plant, etc. For efficiency purposes, the generated electrical power is stepped up to a very high voltage (such as, for example, 345K Volts) and transmitted over transmission lines. The transmission lines may transmit the power long distances, such as across state lines or across international boundaries, until it reaches its wholesale customer, which may be a company that owns the local distribution network. The transmission lines may terminate at a transmission substation, which may step down the very high voltage to an intermediate voltage (such as, for ex ample, 138K Volts). From a transmission substation, smaller transmission lines (such as, for example, sub-transmission lines) transmit the intermediate voltage to distribution substations. At the distribution substations, the intermediate voltage may be again stepped down to a “medium voltage” (such as, for example, from 4K Volts to 23K Volts). One or more feeder circuits may emanate from the distribution substations. For example, four to tens of feeder circuits may emanate from the distribution substation. The feeder circuit is a 3-phase circuit comprising 4 wires (three wires for each of the 3 phases and one wire for neutral). Feeder circuits may be routed either above ground (on poles) or underground. The voltage on the feeder circuits may be tapped off periodically using distribution transformers, which step down the voltage from “medium voltage” to the consumer voltage (such as, for example, 120V). The consumer voltage may then be used by the consumers.
Currently, real time situational awareness of the status of distribution network may not be available. Thus, a distribution network often runs a high risk for power outages or blackouts. Actually, there are many causes that might result in a power failure, such as power demand outstripping power supply, faults at power stations, faulty lines or devices, short circuiting, device's heavy-loading or over-loading operations for a long time, etc. Moreover, with an increasing demand for the electricity, the heavy-loading and over-loading of the distribution equipment can happen more often than before. The heavy-loading or over-loading might lead to a temperature rise in the insulation system and damage of the insulation materials, and lead to increase in failure risk of the equipment, which in turn could result in a pre-mature failure and further affect reliability of the grid. However, at present, the Distribution Management System (DMS) of many power utility companies cannot collect all loading information of the entire network (such as the loading information of distribution transformers), which means the heavy-loading or over-loading may not be identified and handled in time.